Kavanaugh, campaigns and catching up on Maine politics after the long Labor Day weekend

Good morning from Augusta, where the State House is again relatively quiet as Maine’s political world turns its attention to events in Washington and on the campaign trail.

Good morning from Augusta, where the State House is again relatively quiet as Maine’s political world turns its attention to events in Washington and on the campaign trail.

As Democrats court the vote of Maine’s Republican senator, a Maine teenager is one of their witnesses in the Supreme Court nomination hearing set to begin today. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, has for months been a point of focus for liberals looking to derail President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the high court, although she has never opposed a nominee who made it to the Senate floor and has shown no sign of opposing the Republican favorite so far.

Confirmation hearings will begin today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Collins isn’t expected to take a position on Kavanaugh until they conclude — as is her standard practice. Over the weekend, Collins spokeswoman Annie Clark shot down a Huffington Post report insinuating that the senator pre-approved Kavanaugh in talks with Trump as “false.”

Last week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the lead Democrat on the panel, released her party’s list of witnesses for the hearing. They include Hunter LaChance of Kennebunkport, a teenager with asthma who has been an environmental activist.

To read the rest of “Kavanaugh, campaigns and catching up on Maine politics after the long Labor Day weekend,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.

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